Some more random observations

Go to the Zeil, the main shopping district in Frankfurt, and you'll see one of these fellows: Grillwalkers. They are mobile Bratwurst vendors and have some kind of powerpack strapped on their back and a grill strapped to their chest.

View from the front.

******************************

Our neighbor Björn asked David for a ride to work one morning. They climbed into the minivan and Björn looked at David's travel mug and here's how the conversation went:

B: What's that?
D: My coffee.
B: Your coffee? What kind of cup is that?
D: It's a travel mug. It keeps my coffee warm.
B: Why don't you just drink your coffee when it's hot?
D: Well, you know, I can put the coffee in this cup and then walk around, do stuff, get ready for work, drive into work, and drink my coffee and it's still warm.
B: Dave, when I drink my coffee, I have it in a nice coffee cup and I sit at the table. I eat my breakfast and drink my coffee. I enjoy my breakfast and coffee.  You really walk around with this travel mug all morning? That's hilarious!
D: What can I say? I'm an American.

**********************************

Hornbach is a Home Depot-like home improvement store. There was a Hornbach ad on TV recently that has won many awards. An earnest voice encourages viewers to “make it your project” as a sequence of falling walls, abandoned buildings, bursting pipes, and mold-choked rooms collides with improbable fluffy indoor clouds, floating clocks and a rainbow of paint splashing skyward.  In the middle, for just a second, you see this....

....several seemingly naked men dancing around with balloons.  Hymne, as the ad is entitled, "is winning awards for its seamless, poetic integration of incongruous images promoting the superstore with a poignant story of renewal."

*********************************

Drive through Frankfurt often enough and you'll come across the Beer Bike. Everyone pedals and there is someone manning the steering wheel as the wagon makes its way through traffic. A full keg of beer keg sits right up front.

Hmmm, we're always coming across interesting things that we think could make us a lot of money back in the U.S. I wonder if this would fly.

***********************************

Chances are you'll also come across at some point a childcare wagon. 

This one has rain shields as rain can come up very quickly in Germany.  I saw one such wagon at Christmastime at the Christmas market in Frankfurt where the wagon had a narrow table in the middle with little wells for the kids' sippy cups.

**************************************

I have seen a surprising number of kids on unicycles around town. 

****************************************

Galileo is an educational show that is on in the evenings at 7:00pm.  We have seen episodes where the entire show was devoted to how to make Schnitzel and then which restaurant had the biggest and best tasting one.  Another took 3 differently prices bustier and garter belt sets and put them through rigorous testing to see how they held up. Some shows resemble the American show Mythbusters.

One evening we were all watching a show about the behind-the-scene workings of an indoor waterpark.  There was an interview with the fellow who was responsible for the wave machine, there was a segment about how the water is kept clean and safe, etc.  And then a new segment began with a young fellow asking the question, "Can you cook an egg simply by letting it sit in a hot sauna?"  He opened the sauna door and he and the camera crew entered.  Sitting on benches were three or four naked women.  He said hello to them and the woman said hello back and he proceeded to set an egg down and talk about the temperature of the sauna, etc.  They checked back in with the egg in the sauna later in the show and the naked ladies were still there in full view in the not-so-distant background.

We've been here for almost three years, but I still find myself calling out, "Hello!" when a naked person suddenly appears on screen.  I can't remember whether or not the egg cooked, but I do remember whether or not the people were clothed.

*********************************

This mini billboard appeared last week on one of the streets I take to get to the kids' school. Schweppes is introducing a line of sparkling iced tea with the flavors Green Tea, Black Tea and Rooibos. David and the kids had sparkling iced tea in Brugge, but I didn't.  I can't leave Germany without trying a bottle as I doubt   we'll be seeing this soft drink anytime soon in the U.S.

Moving Home: What is the timing on everything?

Plenty of people have been asking us about the timing of the move home. Here are the facts:

1. David is already back in the U.S. and has started his new job with Lufthansa Cargo and is enjoying it.
2. We've been trying to sell off items we cannot take home, such as German kitchen appliances, a TV, a vacuum cleaner, some of our German armoires, a computer printer. We've already sold our minivan, but we still need to find a good home for Micaela's 5 newts.
3. The kids last day of school is June 25th.
4. Micaela, James and I will attend a Green Day Concert July 1st.
5. Packers come to do a pre-packing July 2nd.
6. David flies back to Germany to help with the final packing.
7. We will fly home to the U.S. sometime around July 11.
8. We all live in a 2-bedroom apartment with some rental furniture until we have bought a house and moved in.
9. Kids start school in Georgia August 9th. They will have a short summer. Depending on whether or not we own a house or know which school district we will be moving into, they may need to switch schools in September/October.
10. We try to wait patiently for our belongings to arrive from Germany. It usually takes 6 weeks.

David just moved yesterday from a hotel into the 2-bedroom apartment. He was waiting for the rental furniture to be delivered in the evening when he got a phone call. The furniture people were running behind and would he like to reschedule? He said no, he would wait. He got a call a half an hour later saying that one of the drivers had a death in the family and that they would have to reschedule. David wrote in his e-mail, "The timing is very suspect. I had to sleep on the floor."

I wrote back railing against the injustices of the world. Poor thing. Then he sent me back an e-mail with the subject line, "I feel better now." Here is what I saw when I opened the e-mail.

For you poor unfortunate souls who are not familiar with the best fastfood restaurant ever, David sent us a picture of his chicken biscuit breakfast from Chik-fil-A.

The kids and I all agreed that he is very cruel to tease us like that.

Knights' Tournament

Each morning I am awakened by the sound of the 6:00am news report on our local Armed Forces Network radio station The Eagle--"Serving America's Best." It's nice to lay back and here the latest news and weather forecast in English. I just haven't gotten a good handle on the metric system when it pertains to temperatures. The disk jockeys play music from the 80s, 90s and 00s without any annoying commercials. The do have advertisements for clubs and activities for troops and their families living in the Wiesbaden area, such as church groups, exercise programs, mental and physical health checkups, activities for kids, etc. Every so often I'll hear a public service announcement reminding people not to discuss military concerns in public as "You never know who is listening to you and you could be putting yourself and others in danger" -- basically a reminder that "Loose lips sink ships." There is also a reminder I hear sometimes telling people not to be discussing that they may have heard when a certain group of soldiers might be coming back from combat, as this is confidential and can end up hurting moral if people get details wrong.

In addition, the disk jockeys make recommendations of things to do in the area and a few days ago, a Knights' Tournament/Medieval Fair-type of festival at a nearby castle town was mentioned. David and I had been years and years ago to an excellent Renaissance Fair in Lancaster, PA and an OK one south of Atlanta. They are always a nice way to spend an afternoon.

We had thought about going to this one last year, but it didn't happen. I was determined to make it happen this year when I heard about the Ritterspiele (Knights Games) the other morning. How fantastic to visit such a fair in a country where they originally took place hundreds of years ago.

Katzenelnbogen means "cat's elbow."

The village of Katzenelnbogen was about an hour's drive away. The kids were not so impressed by its castle built around 1095. They said it was more of a house.

It became immediately apparent as we walked first around the Market Square that this was not your typical Renaissance Fair.  For one thing, our brochure told us we were now in the year 1312, earlier than the Renaissance.  Also, there were no official costumed performers walking around entertaining us, but you saw plenty of people dressed in serious medieval garb. Most of the booths were selling items geared to these people, such as these authentic bows and arrows. At least they looked authentic to my untrained eye. 

Little tender fingers touching big sharp axes.

A knights' emporium

I do not suppose you happen to have a sword for a six-fingered man?

Emilie brought her own sword and I bought Becca this headdress.

The most impressive guy I saw all day. I asked him first if I could take his picture, as I was afraid he might do me bodily harm if I didn't.  It was hot today -- probably in the mid-80s and bright sun.  These people must have been dying.

And from the back

Pedaling a snack

Starting them young. In fact, this place had the feeling of a Medieval Convention, like what you hear about Star Trek conventions.

This fellow was transporting an actual live head in his box.

Emilie trying her hand at the crossbow

Making music with...

....a key fiddle.  At lest that's what I think she said.

Watching the first round of knights' games

Racing to capture a ring first.  There were several female participants.

Where the knights, squires and others spend their nights.

Emilie and Cora

James and Donni -- a hawk

The Highland Games portion of the afternoon.  Tossing a heavy ball and chain.

Emilie practicing

A bagpipe band turned up to inspire the Highlanders

Bex lending a hand

Kilts abounded.  Look carefully and you can see the heavy stone they were tossing up and over the rope.

The Big Man. He was tossing a larger stone than anyone else. Here he's wiping his hands on his buddy's kilt rather than his own. Auf die Plätze.....

...fertig....

....los!

Falconry demonstration

One bird was very naughty and refused to land where he was supposed to.  Here he is on a flag instead of on the glove of the boy in blue.  At the end of the show, he flew to a very distant tree and would not come back.  The man giving the demonstration just left the field assuring us that his bird would come back eventually.  Yikes.

It was time for the main event -- the Knights' Tournament. Check out the drummer's shoes.

Marching in the Knights' flags

Rebecca said, "Hey! I like that girl. She could be my friend!"

Parade of local and foreign dignitaries

Why not a camel, too?

The hostess and a participant in the tournament, Susannah of Katzenelnbogen.

The challengers

Saluting the crowd.  Oh, no!  It turned out one of the challengers was Adelhaid, Susannah's estranged sister.  They were battling for control of Katzenelnbogen!

This knight caught my eye right away with his intensity.  He ended up playing the role of the bully -- snarling at the crowd and intimidating the other knights.

Using a sword to knock down targets.  Only Susannah was successful in spearing an orange at the end of the run.

Trying to calm the tension between the two teams

Meow! or rather Miau!

I wanted to yell "Hübschling!" at my intense champion, as random people yell at the newly handsome Squidward in the German "Two Faces of Squidward" episode (rough translation is hottie). But my children would have never have forgiven me.

Trying to capture as many rings as possible.

It's hard to see in the photos, but these horses were running at a near-full gallop.

Aiming for a squire-held shield

My Hübschling needs to settle down a bit.

Racing to be the first to set a target on fire

Practicing for the joust

Saluting opponents

Go, Hübschling!

Hooray!

At this point, Becca became frightened and began to cry, asking to go home.  The thumping music, intense fighting and scary-looking horses all served to terrify her.  We moved back from the field and I wasn't able to take pictures of the next event -- everyone had a bag of sand (really just bags of hay, but we pretended not to notice when one bag split open) and tried to knock other knights and the ladies off their horses.  The sisters even engaged in some hair pulling.  Miau!

In the end, the Susannah and Adelhaid reconciled and Katzenelnbogen was at peace once more.

All Knights and Ladies galloped through fire to end tournament.

A friendly little dragon

Young squire

Checking outhe the 15th century version of Nike clothing

Sir Emilie and her squire -- a still shaken up Becca.

The fellow on the left sang like a Buddist monk. James thought that was very cool.

And right as we left, it began to rain. Perfect timing, perfect day.